Once Upon A Day
by Jan1
Summary: (YAOI/SenHanaSen) How can just one day change two hearts? Read and find out...


Title      : Once Upon A Day …

Author   : Jan

Genre    : Romance/YAOI

Rating   : PG

Pairing  : SenHanaSen, and other surprised ones

Disclaimer:  All SlamDunk charas are Mr. T's.  He is my father.  So, that makes me the heiress of all SD bishies, NYAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Foreword :  The scene is set up 3 year after Shohoku first entered the IH elimination.  That makes the freshies then already in University now.

X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X

Summer vacation has finally arrived.  You could see students lounging around the city mall obviously forgetting, even just for a moment, everything that is school-related.  One tall guy is no exception.  He has been leisurely strolling enjoying the cool ventilation the mall has to offer.  Without a conscious thought, he flashed a smile that made ladies swoon.  The smile is different from what he is famous for.  This smile is a smile of fond remembrance.  He suddenly stopped, then chuckled when a memory of a redhead bishounen came into mind…

He sighed!  Taking a glance at this watch, he couldn't help but smile a little smile.  There is still some time to kill! But he needs to eat solid food first. Without looking at his path, he bumped into a solid wall.  Erm, call that a solid body.

"Hey, watch where you're going man!"  A very annoyed voice shouted loudly at his face.

Glancing up, he offered an apology, "Ano, sumimas—"   He wasn't able to finish his sentence for right before him is no other than… 

"Hana-kun?"  he called out softly, with obvious disbelief! 

"A-Akira?" the redhead answered, roused from his previous outburst of temper, also disbelief written on his face.  "What are you doing here?"  The annoyance was back on his face.

"Hahaha… Hana-kun that is not a decent way to greet an old-time friend, ne?"  The spiky-haired Sendoh Akira unconsciously moved closer to the redhead and draped an arm on his shoulder.  "Do you have a time? I haven't eaten yet since morning…" 

"Ch! And I thought you have changed a bit… Your treat, right?"  The redhead couldn't help but be struck with wonder of the coincidence.  Just last night he came across an old photograph of him and the spiky, with their cheeky grins, arms intimately loped around each other's back. The photo triggers unwanted happy memories.

They entered a plush diner.  Since lunch hour rush is already through, only a few patrons remain and finding a suitable table is no trouble.  After the waitress took their order, a tensed silence enfold the atmosphere.

Sendoh looked at his unusually silent companion, contemplating on what to say, where to start. "You're looking great, as usual."  Sendoh, unaware, uttered the first thought that came to mind.

Hanamichi was startled with the compliment and the soft way it was said.  A tinge of pink is evident on his tanned cheeks. "You always say that to me every time."  The words came out unheeded.  Suddenly, scenes of the two of them flashed before his eyes, which made his cheeks redder.

They talked of the weather, of their friends in high school and other niceties to boot.   Then, another tensed silence befall them.

"You know, we never really talked about what happened to us then."  Sendoh braved to broach the subject that had been plaguing him since.

The redhead snorts.  "Funny you mentioned it."  He looked accusingly at his companion.  "It wasn't I who just suddenly left!"  Shaking his head, "What happened, Akira?"  His eyes now pleading for answers,  "We had such a good start… you made me believe you are the one."

The hell with coincidence, Sendoh thought.  It is as if fate had brought them together for a reason.

"Remember when I said goodbye to you…?"  

~@~  FLASHBACK ~@~

For the first time he was early.  It's not because he was excited, he definitely not.  It is the knowledge that his life will be doomed if he is not careful.  He is waiting for his redhead friend.  Well, they are more than friends but not yet a couple.  What they have is more of a mutual understanding.  

He heaved a sigh.  He doesn't know how to tell Sakuragi.  He is torn between his dream and his desire to be with him.  Still in the throes of his thoughts, he didn't notice the approaching figure.

"Akira…"  Sakuragi Hanamichi loudly called him out.

"Hana-kun, you came!"  He quietly kissed the young man on the cheeks.

"Of course! You are my dear friend. What is it now?  Are you going to treat me to ice cream?  The tensai learns of this newly opened…."  Seeing the unusually serious Sendoh, he tactfully waited for his friend to tell him what's wrong.

"Hana, you know I wanted to build skyscrapers, right?" 

"Yeah!  And I wanted to be the greatest basketball player in Japan.  Then you are going to build me a structure with a basketball court on the topmost floor…" The redhead plunges into a tirade of their long timed aspirations.

Sendoh finds it more difficult to tell the redhead the truth. 

"I'm leaving for Tokyo."  He suddenly blurted out.  Peeking a glance at his companion, he already knew the reaction, but it still jarred him guiltily.

"You're leaving?  When?"  Hanamichi softly asked.

"Tomorrow, seven in the morning."

"But… the InterHigh games… you're not going to watch me play?" 

"…"

"What about the captainship on the Team Ryonan?"

"I have already turned it over to Fukuda…"

The certainty of the matter finally seeped through his consciousness.  "When have you decided on this?" he quietly asked.  He has to know.  He needs to know.

"I received a letter from my uncle who'll accept my apprenticeship, a month ago."  He then extracted an opened letter, obviously worn from constant reading.

"A month ago…"  Hanamichi smirked at the incredulity of it.  He knows he has no right to be angry, for he has no claims whatsoever for Sendoh.  Still, it hurt.  A lot.  The one thing he has been longing for, suddenly an arm's length, but now lost.  "Will you be back?"

"…"

"You will write then?"

"I'll try."

Even a tensai like him knows that it is all just formality that Sendoh even told him the news.  He has no right to hold him back.  No right at all.  "Well, good luck then."  And he sprinted off, away from the very surprised Sendoh.  

Sendoh remained in that place immobile for a long time, oblivious to the swirling sakura petals that softly fell down, in lieu of the tears that he hid inside.   He couldn't help the pain in his chest with the realization that he exchanged his heart with his dream to be a big shot engineer.

~@~ END OF FLASHBACK ~@~

"How can I forget?" Sakuragi replied in a gruff.  "For a week I've mourned for the love that might have been."  Shaking his head with the sad memory, he continued, "The guntai even planned to hunt you, and bring you down for deserting me.  Hahaha… and then, one day I woke up and realized that I don't have to throw away my dream to be the best basketball player just because my love-to-be is gone… So, here I am at the best basketball team in Japan.  I earned myself a scholarship at Tokyo University, and I am determined to realized that dream!"

"Well, I am happy to hear that.  I really felt guilty for leaving you… Don't even think that I haven't felt something for you then.  Even I thought that we could have a wonderful relationship.  I am just sorry that we ended up like that."  

Seeing the sincerity behind Sendoh's eyes, Sakuragi's big-heartedness was stirred.  "But we could still be friends, right?"  Sakuragi smiled.  "So, what about your assembling cement blocks and wood?  Any closer to that skyscraper you dreamed?"  The redhead couldn't help tease his companion. 

The old smiling Sendoh is back.  "Hahaha… Construction Engineering is more that putting cement blocks and wood, baka!"

"Who do you call baka?  You incongruous spikey-haired hentai!"

Their usual teasing game returned.    

They were finishing their meal when Sakuragi's mobile phone rang.

"You through already?…I am at a diner on the west wing of the mall, in front of the fountain… yes, I have already eaten, as I know you won't be eating sooner what with your wisdom tooth pulled!… hahaha… baka… you better get over here fast, I've bumped into this someone… maybe… I won't tell… yaro, yaro!… okay.. ja!"

With a certain excited glint in his eyes, he turned to Sendoh.  "Can we stay here some time longer?  I'd like you to meet someone…"

"Someone special?"

"…"

"Oh, our little tensai is all grown up and smooching someone!"  Sendoh dramatically put the back of his hand on his forehead, and assuming a fainting scene.

"Teme, baka smiley!  Don't tease the tensai!"

Not long, the diner door opened and in came a tall lean guy.  The redhead, as he was facing the entrance, immediately saw him enter.  With long strides, the new guy reached their table and gave the redhead a peck on the lips, before sitting himself beside him.

"Akira, you remembered Rukawa Kaede?  Kitsune, Akira Sendoh!"  Sakuragi re-introduce the two.

Rukawa only snorts some inaudible reply, but there is no mistaking the suspicious icy glare when he stared at the spiky-haired guy, sizing the possibility of threat on his boyfriend.

"Maa, Rukawa-kun, nice to see you, too!"  Sendoh knew too well what the other guy was thinking.  "I have no plans of taking the fiery Hana-kun from you!"  Seeing the glare didn't calm a bit, he prodded further, "… yet!"  Then he heartily laughed at the murderous expression on the famous ice prince himself. 

"Akira!"  The redhead hastily butted in, obviously sensing the danger ahead.  Turning to his boyfriend, he gently caressed Rukawa's cheek, nudging him to look him in the eye.  "Remember what the dentist told you, no strenuous activity nor stressing thoughts!  Anger will only bleed you more."  Smiling tenderly at the change in those eyes.  "Akira is only teasing you.  We have already cleared our past.  And now we're only friends.  No need to be so puffed out on his taunts, okay?"  

Rukawa is helpless when those chocolatey brown eyes bore on him.  He slowly nod his head in assent, then watched coldly at the still smiling Sendoh.

"Now, kitsune and I will have to leave you now, Akira.  We still have other plans.  We hope to see you another time.  You have our number, right?  You should call us anytime, okay?"

"Your kitsune is definitely not thrilled to meet me, Hana-kun.   Hahaha!  But I will call you… for a date!"  Sendoh blatantly baited the jealous boyfriend, but Rukawa only glared icy daggers on him.  Before the couple turned their back on him, he winked at Rukawa with a knowing smile.

He still wear that knowing smile when someone tapped him on the shoulders none too gently.

"Oi, wipe that mischievous smirk on your face!  People might think you're a lunatic!  Well, not that it isn't true, but I am here now, so I do not want to be associated with a loco."  

Sendoh's eyes immediately sparkled like that of a child opening his Christmas presents!  "Oh, I missed you so, Kosh-kosh!"  Then threw himself on the surprised Koshino Hiroaki.

"Baka!  People are looking at us!"  The shorter guy, red with embarrassment and annoyance, immediately disentangle himself from the grappling Sendoh.

"I'm hurt, koi!"  Sendoh feigned a hurt expression.  "I just seen Hana-kun awhile and well, memories came all back, you know!"  

"Sakuragi Hanamichi?"  Koshino knew of Sendoh's past relationships, and the redhead's was what could be called Sendoh's first love.  Though he and Sendoh are already a couple, he still feel the pang of jealousy.  He flashed his famous grumpy look.

"Oh, you ready look cute when you're jealous, koi!  Mmm, that pouting lips looks yummy to me!"

Koshino instantly knew that Sendoh is only goading him, and he right away fall for it.  He silently bashed himself for his foolishness.  "So, what's with the mischievous grin you had awhile ago?"  

"Oh, that!"  Sendoh flicked a hand as if brushing off the matter aside.  "It was just that some things that haunts me some time ago turned out to be really funny.  One day, I met someone I believed to be the one, but ended up leaving him behind.  Then I met you, my one true thing.    Then everything cleared in just one day.  Don't you find it funny?"  He turned expectant eyes on his companion.

"Sorry, I really didn't find it funny at all!"  Koshino gave him the same annoyed looked.

"Ugh, you're no fun Kosh-kosh!"  Sendoh petulantly pouted, knowing that he looked irresistible.  Then he smiled,  "All this time I carried that guilt that someone somewhere is still hurting by my leaving him, and still hoping for my return.  As I was then, hoping for our happy reunion.  But I met you and fell for you.  But the guilt still remains… The funny thing is, he had also found someone else, and also burdened with the same guilt that I had…  And now, everything is cleared of the cobwebs of the past.  And this happened in just a day!"  He released a big sigh, feeling relieved.

Koshino only learned of Sendoh's guilty feelings only recently.  "I still didn't find it funny."  A little twitch in the lips, which could pass for a smile, is the only change in his annoyed look.  "But I am glad that everything is fine."  He then flashed his boyfriend his rare full-scale smile.

~ FIN ~

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it was supposedly a full blown SenHanaSen, as my intended contribution for SenHana Day (erm, that was eons ago, I know! But it still can pass for a HanaSen Day, right?),  but I feel the wrath of Ru-kun is not worth it, so I just highlighted on the SenHana part.  And the ever possessive Ru have my adorable Hana! And Sendoh wasn't left high and dry, with the equally "affable" KoshKosh….

Hehehe… everyone is happy! Yippe!!!!! 

The inspiration comes from a song _Minsan Isang Araw_ from the Album **Story Book** of **The Company**, a Filipino group of artists.  Thus, the title Once Upon A day, a pathetic translation of the title of the song.

I would really like to know what u think of the fic, so flames are accepted.  I will also try to answer questions on the whys, what-haves, etc, so just fire up ur critical minds and I will accommodate u.  Or you may send ur comments to jan09smd@yahoo.com.

I will be updating my Forbidden fic soon, so watch for it! Thanx to those who reviewed!

Arigato.  Ja!  


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